That Triathlon Life Podcast - Ironman 70.3 Oceanside triathlon race recap, how much soreness is normal, race kit chamois, and a chat with TTL Devo athlete Kate Curran

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

This week Eric and Paula are back in Oregon after 2 months in California. The first half of the episode is dedicated to Paula talking us through her thoughts and feelings during her race at IM 70.3 Oceanside. After getting our race recap fix, we moved onto questions submitted by listeners. Questions about always being sore while training, weather Eric is interested in gravel racing, how to stay warm during a cold race, why a triathlon chamois is uncomfortable, and who Eric and Paula's biggest influences are. We even had the luck to have professional triathlete Kate Curran on at the end to talk about her experience at the race where she finished 7th pro female! To submit your own question, and become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast 

Hi, everyone. Welcome to that Triathlon Live podcast. I'm Eric Lockerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our triathlon podcast where we talk a little bit about what's going on in the triathlon world, a little bit of current events. But the bulk of the show is we talk and we take some questions from listeners and try to be helpful in part some of our knowledge. Paul and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlete and I don't know, I think we have a good time talking. And this is kind of a special episode for multiple reasons. For several reasons. First of all, we're back into our normal, what would you call these, normal posts?

You guys are in Bend. You're on the mics that the supporters helped fund the purchase of. I'm here in Santa Monica and we're looking at each other through a FaceTime screen. Yeah, after eight weeks of us being down in California training and then going to 70.3 Oceanside, we are back to normal, back to the normal setup here in, yeah. Did you say it already? Ball and iron bend. Nickson. Yeah. Bend, Oregon. Yeah. Sorry. I'm slightly brain dead. We just did our first workout or whatever. First full day of workout back here in Bend. I'm definitely personally feeling the altitude. It's not like crazy altitude here, but it's just enough for about 3,500 feet to where I'm gasping like a fish with without air. And I'm doing like the high altitude cough and all the things.

But yeah, I'm really excited. This is going to be a fun show. What did you guys actually do today? I'm curious what your workouts were as like your first full day back. Just to be clear, we drove back. We spent probably 10 hours in the car on Sunday. And then another four yesterday. And then I spent the whole afternoon yesterday kind of unpacking and unboxing all of our packages that have been accumulating and cleaning out the van, which I feel like this is going to be a multi-day process.

but I started it yesterday. And then today we, Eric got a full-on training schedule because he's going to do St. Anthony's coming up and he didn't race Oceanside. So I just tagged along with Eric. But Eric, what did you do today? This morning, Flynn and I went for a 50-minute run on trails, which were magical and beautiful.

They're fortunately dried out after some snow recently. And then we went to the pool. Did 16 times 50 as hard as I could go, which... Long course. Yeah, long course meters. That was a surprise. Oh, okay. No flips. Just go. Yeah, like I said, being back at a little bit of altitude plus long course meters, that was a rough swim. But thank goodness it was just 50s with a lot of rest. I think our coach Paulo, you know, anticipated the difficulty of that.

And then we did six by five by six minutes basically up what's called Pilot Butte here in Bend, which goes up to like 15% or something. It's one of those spirally volcano cinder cones. It has a road going up it. Wait, Eric, is that the one that we filmed with the drone for the SL7 build? No, that was Lobbyte. That's down the coast of the Sun River. This is pilot butte, which is kind of like the main feature in Bend as far as topography goes, right in downtown. It's closed to cars and it's freshly paved, and it takes about six minutes bottom to top if you're going decently hard.

Just like race pace. I think the KOM's like just under five minutes. but if you're just going... Well, the QOM, which I have is 540, but that was before they repaved it. Oh, so you think you could bring that down. Oh, for sure. If I'm riding the same powers I did last time,

it's way faster out of the road right now. Oh, very nice. Okay, good. So you guys are back in Ben, back into training. Excited to, Eric, I'm excited to see what this kind of, where your fitness is at after training eight weeks at sea level because when's the last time you trained for eight weeks at sea level? Four years ago?

So, anyway, the other. thing that's special about this episode, the two more things. One thing is that Paula raced Oceanside 70.3 on Saturday, which was the first race of the Iron Man Pro series. And Paul, you're not doing the Iron Man Pro series, but this happened to be one of the races and kind of a, it was a cool example of what it can be like. And then the other cool thing was that we, we're going to have a regular episode here where Paula's going to do her race recap. We're going to answer some questions submitted by listeners. And then at the end, we're also going to have one of our development team athletes, Kate Corinne, on, and she's going to give her race recap as well. She also did really well,

so we're excited to see how that goes. Yeah, she came seventh and qualified for world championships, so great race for her. Love that. And she's actually coming to Ben now. She's going to, like, spend three weeks in Bend in between Oceanside and St. George. So, yeah, we'll have her on at the end of the show. Okay, so Paula, first Ironman 70.3 race of the year, but not your first race of the year. Usually this is like the season opener, but it felt different this year, right? Yeah, it was my second kind of big race of the year. I did Miami in March, early March. So this was my second race of the year, which was made it a little easier. Like all my gear was already kind of organized and ready to go and you get the pre-raced nerves out of the first race of having no idea how you're going to do. So I felt really relaxed going into this race. We'd been training in Ventura, obviously, so it was just a two-hour drive. So it didn't really even feel like a race week. It just felt like we were kind of training through the week and then bam, we're an ocean side and then bam, we're racing on Saturday.

So I really was not that nervous going into this race at all, which is really unusual for me. Do you feel like not being as nervous and all the stuff you're talking about about just kind of like casually rolling down? do you actually think that had an effect on your performance or did it just have an effect on your like mental well-being? I don't know. I don't. I'm hard to say. Yeah, it's hard to say. I was definitely nervous still, but I think maybe I didn't treat it as seriously enough as I should have pre-race. Like we did a lot on Thursday and I was like Oceanside always feels like the most hectic race of the year. I feel like between the couple days that we're there beforehand, there's almost no time to just lie down and relax. relax because we did the TTL pop-up and then you got the press conference and the meeting and the bike drop-off like all the things that a race entails but for some reason ocean side just feels like five times more busy so I don't know by Friday night I was like wow I don't think I'm fully rested or feeling good for this but um but whatever it's good to practice going into race like that

too for um maybe later in the year and erika and race morning was texting me while you guys were swimming, that he was freezing cold, not even swimming. How cold were you that morning? Yeah, it was pretty cold. I tried to approach it how I approached St. George in 2022 for World Championships when it was really cold then. And it was just staying as warm as I could. I had like five layers on my upper body and I ran with like my puffy vest and my puffy jacket over top of that. So I, my core body temperature was actually quite warm. And the point where I got cold was when had to be in our wetsuits with no clothing waiting for the start. So it was super uncomfortable. And I think I actually really struggled with the early start. And obviously I've done early

races before plenty of times. But Eric and I have been sleeping in quite a lot with our training lately. Like we'll do a casual like 9.30 a.m. start for our first session and we'll train till 7.30 p.m. So the 4 a.m. wake up, I think was harder for me than I've ever experienced before. Like I was standing on the start line still feeling like I wanted to go back to sleep. And that's not really a good thing. By that point, you should be like ready to go. And I was more like, wow, I wish this started five hours later. Interesting, though, I thought you had a really good swim.

It seemed like you had a good swim start. And it seemed like you came out of the water in good position. I think I'm swimming well, but I made like a technical error. And I'm usually just flatlining the swim so much that I can't even really recognize when an error like this is made. But I was beside Kate, actually. And she got on Taylor Nib's feet and on Fenella's feet with a lead pack. And Grace Alexander, who's a really good swimmer, was also kind of with us. And I thought, every time I'm on Grace's feet, I have a good swim.

So I got on Grace's feet. But Grace let a gap open to Kate. And then I was just touching Grace's feet like it was not hard. So I was like, shoot, I can swim faster than this. So I went around her and at that point those other three girls were gone. So it's just a little bit of the nature of like having so many women at the start and different speeds of the first 200 meters. But I missed that front little group. And I think that if things had gone differently at the start and I was like on the feet still, I could have stayed with them for the whole swim.

So that was kind of unfortunate because I ended up swimming alone with a couple people on my feet for the whole swim. and I'm not a fast enough swimmer to like, I don't know, move super quickly when I'm not drafting on someone, but I can kind of stay on good feet. So the first part of the race is really critical for me and I kind of messed it up at this race. But that's fine. And then last week, Eric had said that Iron Man to keep things kind of safe, if the waves are more than ankle height, they have the swim in the harbor. And I think that might be an exaggeration, but this year as well, they had the swim in the harbor in like the marina area, right? Yeah, they had the swim in the harbor so you go out and then you turn and come back into the sunrise.

And I am not kidding you, you can't see anything. It's like so scary. So all I could really see was like the sea of pro men that we were slowly catching because they had three minutes ahead of us. But there was like 80 of them and we probably outswam most of them. So it was, at least we had them to kind of guide, like, direction off of. But honestly, it was, I knew this was coming. This happens every year at Ocean Side, but it's really, really hard to cite the buoys on the way back. So did you have, do you think there's a type of goggle that would be better?

Or is there no way around it because the sun is just perfectly in front of you? Well, I had tinted goggles. I don't think there's any way around it. I just had to take, like, like three or four head-up strokes, like polo style, you know, that drill that we do. So that drill is actually kind of useful for this situation because in order to see the buoy at all, you had to have your head up for at least five seconds and that required swimming head up.

You know what you really needed is the eclipse glasses. That's what you would have really benefited from in the water and you would have looked cool. The position that Paula was in was actually probably the worst position to be in because the lead pack is going to have a stand-up paddler that's leaving the way. And you can pretty much just look up and see that. The women did too?

I don't know if the women did. Oh, actually, I guess I don't know. But generally, you do. And then if you're in the lead pack, you're just touching the feet in front of you. But then the chase pack is trying to, it has a little bit harder time because you don't get a stand-up paddleboarder. Right, right. Okay, so the swim, even though you made a little technical error, which was more, I wouldn't say it was an error. You took a chance on something that didn't work the way it usually does for you.

And then you got out of the water. It's still in a good position and onto the bike. and usually you're a great biker compared to the rest of the field. Not today. Okay, so what was going on? I thought it would be super cold, which it was on the bike. So I wanted to put gloves on. But when I got to my bike, Taylor Nib was still standing there, messing around with her bike.

So I was like, wow, if I don't put any clothing on or any gloves, I can exit transition with her and see how long I can ride with her, whether that's two minutes, whether that's 20, whether that's an hour. But I was like, man, that would be really dumb to not put gloves on. So I lost her by 20 seconds or whatever. And my feet were like pegs. I could not feel them. I couldn't get my feet in my shoes. Everyone experienced this, I'm sure. It was just so cold.

And the run around transition is so long that you're running on these like cold bare feet. So it's quite uncomfortable. Started riding and I was kind of alone the entire way. Like couldn't see anyone behind me in front of me. A few pro men passed me. I passed a few pro men, but other than that, it was like a completely lonely course. The roads are in such bad shape. I can't even explain how awful they are.

So it really like threw me off the first 30 minutes of the race, because I think that's where the roads are the worst. You said worst 70.3 road conditions you've ever raced in is what you told me. I think it might be for the first 20 minutes. Can you like describe what it is or just like potholes or is it like the entire channels of cut out? Like just chunky roads, like pothole chunky roads. And especially behind this shopping complex where they say it's a no passing zone because they know it's so bad. But there was like holes that were filled with mudwater even. Like it was just so bad.

And when you're going that fast in arrow, hitting a hole can be catastrophic. That's how I crashed in Oceanside two years ago. Yeah. So I was riding with my head up at like terrible watts. and just kind of over it before it had even really started. Well, remember, it rained and hailed the day before. Yeah, I guess it's not their fault that there was like these huge puddles within the crevices. It's not anyone's fault.

And because the race is held in Camp Pendleton, I don't think that Iron Man can just request from the city of Oceanside to go and fix the roads because it's kind of part of this military base, which is much more complicated to organize. And they don't care how the roads are. They're driving tanks on them. Which is probably part of the other reason they're not in great shape. Right. I won't say the whole race has bad roads.

Like once you get kind of out and, you know, past the bike path area, it's, it gets better. But it's a lot of turns, a lot of twisties, a lot of, you know, sand and bad stuff on the roads. So that wasn't great. But I lapped my watch at like 30 minutes. I was like, okay, just restart, refocus. Who cares how much time you've lost? Just try to start riding well now that you're kind of in the clear of all the shit. And then it felt a little bit better.

But still like no feedback of where I was or where anyone else was. But you caught Fenella at a certain point. Yeah, I caught Fanella with about 25 or 30K to go, I'd say. And I could tell I was riding the uphills stronger than her because that's where I would kind of catch her as I could see her in the distance. So right when I caught her was actually on her. a climb. And there was a couple more climbs where I could kind of shake her a little bit, but then she'd catch back up on the descents because I suck it descending. So I just kind of like came into

transition with her. And I think the top age group guy also caught us at the very end of the race as well. So it saw a few other souls out there, but for the most part, it was alone. Yeah. And at that point in your mind, are you thinking this day is going well? Are you thinking, why is that? I don't know, because Taylor Nib is like an hour ahead of us. Did you know that at that point? As soon as I got into transition, it was, yeah, the announcer said it. And I was like, okay, that sucked. And also I knew what my bike split was at this race in the past.

And when I saw, I was like nowhere even close to that. I knew it was a slow day because it was really windy, but it was like quite a lot slower than what I'd ridden before on the same course. So that was a bit discouraging as well. Do you want to talk at all about your power file? Because you looked at that and said that there was quite a large amount of time that you were peddling zero. Yeah, the power file was interesting because my bike mechanic put a big chainering on the front and I could barely get up the steep hills. Who's your bike mechanic?

I said, Eric, is this the same gearing I've used before at this race? Because I've done this race five times. If it's the same gearing, I know it's fine. Eric said it was. And then I get to the steep hill. and I am so, I thought I wasn't going to get up it. I was so panicky because I was going 55 RPM, 330 watts out of the saddle, and I was barely moving. So my power file looks like I spent like 11 minutes over 300 watts in the whole race, which is quite a lot, over 310 watts.

Like it was too high for a 70.3 and that was just getting up the climbs. And then on the flip side, I spent like 13 minutes below 150 watts total. So that's with like I'd get to the top of the hills and I would just like coast the descent because I was so exhausted. And all of the pothilly roads, I would kind of like soft pedal through them. So I was definitely not spending enough time at race power. I was spending a lot of time way too high and then way too low. So that's kind of an interesting thing.

a bit of the nature of the course, and a course like St. George or Miami and much more even. But it's kind of cool to like see that data after. And it's not all Eric's fault. I should know my own gearing, but damn, that sucked. It's kind of funny because your training is very much like above and below race pace and you do well in those training sessions. So I wonder how much that kind of in a weird way suited you. I don't know. I didn't ride fast. So. I mean, you wrote fast. You were the third fastest female pro. Okay. That's good. That's not acceptable. Not acceptable. You have to be 10 minutes faster than anyone else.

So we all accept her words. Usually the winner has to do a little speech. And they were like, the lady said, Taylor, obviously you smashed it. But how did you feel knowing that you're out there with these other women? Like an opportunity to be like amazing competition. Well done. everyone and she said, well, I swam really slow and I biked really slow, but that's okay. When you're on the stage and you just won by 12 minutes, like, I don't think she meant it. I don't know. A mental note of like, even when you think you didn't have a great race, it's really condescending to everyone who finished behind you if you say you went really slow. I mean, I guess I just kind of said that about my race.

But I also didn't destroy everyone by 12 minutes. But you destroyed someone by 12 minutes who was trying their very hardest. That's true. It's just so unfortunate that literally no one in the field is it happy with their result, not even the freaking winner. Yeah. Like how depressing is that? Yeah, this is like deep in the DNA of what you and I talked about at the end of the last week's episode, Eric. Well, that's why I had this realization afterwards that I'm like, okay, if I put myself in this,

position five or ten years ago when I'm just constantly injured, can't even race, can't even get through a run. And I'm podiuming at Oceanside. Like, that is a good day. So I cannot be mad about this. Who cares how much faster? Taylor Nib went. I was racing with Emma, one of the best 70.3 athletes in the world. Fanella, one of the best Iron Man athletes in the world. I had a pretty good day. I ran faster than I ever have on that course. So I'm not mad about it by any means. But I think as athletes, your nature is to pick apart everything that maybe didn't go well so that you can do better next time or just learn from it. So on the bike, I think I made some errors.

And I definitely can improve in a lot of areas. I can, things that are very easy to fix, like gearing and being more brave through bad conditions, but also things like riding more steady and not having these huge surges and drops in power. So I don't know. I'm not saying I had a terrible race. I'm just analyzing what I didn't do great. Where did you come off the bike? On to the run.

Okay, onto the run. I came out of the run with Finella. I had a pretty good transition, unlike me, to have a pretty fast transition. Oh, it just not unlike you. Yeah, my transition is usually okay, but this one was particularly pretty quick. And I don't know, every time I start the Oceanside Run, I'm like, here we go. Here comes the death march. Let's get started.

But this time I didn't feel awful. I was kind of just like running super controlled. And I, another thing on the bike is because of the crazy nature of the bad roads and the hills, I didn't take in as much nutrition as I should have to, you know, some, but not enough. So I really tried to like front load on the run by taking like two Mortons right away and water at everything. And so as the run progressed, I actually felt better because I think I over, you know, I compensated a lot. I'm fascinated a little bit at the start for what I missed on the bike. And no stomach distress at all. Yeah, my stomach never really hurts when I take gels.

I don't know. That's great. Even when they're the consistency of boogers? No, the Morton gels are like the kind that just slide down your throat. Yeah. I find those the easiest to take. Yeah, usually I take precision on the run because you can kind of take it more slowly because it's a bit gooeyer. but because I needed to get fuel in quick and easily

and big gulps I took Morton gels because they're like boogers. Yeah. I didn't come up with that. I can't claim that. And like what the F is this? Kyle from Prochia News came up with the boogers. I was like, you are right.

What is this freaking mortal hydration is now like the on course nutrition. So I don't even think that shit has calories in it. It's like, it's got like stevia. I didn't touch that stuff, but I had water at every age station. and it is nice that they hand out $4 Mortons at every aid station as well. Wow.

That's worth doing the race alone. Just pocket a few of those. Yeah, exactly. If you're having a bad day, just take two parades station and shove them down your kit. Okay, so I have a question. Eric and I kind of were like behind you running when you first came out of T2. And you put a gap into Finale pretty quick. Was that an intentional thing?

Or were you just like, nope, I'm running my pace. I'm going to try to hold the steadiest pace I can. Yeah, there was no thinking about dropping finela. Phinella was just run. I mean, Fanella can have really great runs and she can have not so great runs. She's not like a Tamara Jewett where you're like, okay, see you later. So I knew that if I was running well and maybe she, I don't know,

wasn't running as well as she can, then I could put a gap on her. So that's what happened. And I had a pretty big gap back to fourth and was putting time on most people. So I was comfortable in that spot. The thing about Oceanside is that the second loop is actually quite a lot more fun because there's all the age groupers out on course at that time. So I kind of use them as momentum. Like you're running past them so you feel fast.

And then they're all cheering for me. It's amazing. So I really enjoy the second lap a lot more than the first lap, even though technically you should be more tired and hurting more at that point. I actually felt a little better and I had the extra motivation from everyone around me. So I thought that was, yeah, a little more fun as the race went on. Okay, and then you are, you're aware that Emma's kind of catching up to you. And are you thinking like, I need to try to go with her?

Are you like, no, I'm going to try to secure a third? No. If someone runs two minutes to you in eight kilometers, you're not staying with him. But she actually didn't put that much more time on me as the race went on. I think she only beat me by 30 seconds in the end. So I think she really worked hard to catch me and then kind of stayed the same as me. So whatever. Everyone on horse was like, she's right there, you can catch her. And I'm like, no, I can't catch her. I'm not necessarily trying to catch her. But I was not far back from her and I could see her and her biker person that was beside her the whole time. So she may have been kind of just playing that controlled as well and just putting enough of a gap to come second, but not enough to put herself in a huge hole because none of us were catching Taylor. I was giving you splits to people behind you

because you were requesting those but I mean the people behind me were running pretty fast too so I was like not super confident that they weren't going to catch me but I mean it's like it's really hard to communicate to you while you're running really quickly just keep doing what you're doing and you will be fine you know like you can't completely stop and walk it in and like kiss babies

but you don't have to like kill yourself either just keep doing what you're doing This was helpful. Actually, the most helpful advice I got from anyone on course was from Jordan Blanco. And she told me, as I had about, I had about like eight or nine K left, maybe. And she said, Grace is two and a half minutes behind you, but she's only put a minute into you so far. And I'd run 11 or 12K at that point. So that I was like, oh, okay, I'm actually, she is running faster than me. but she's only put a minute into me and I have less time to go and I have two and a half minutes as a buffer. So that information was so useful

to me and gave me a lot of confidence. So I'm like, oh, I could bleed another minute and I would still have 90 seconds. Yes. So she's not possibly going to start running so much faster that she'll catch me. And I feel fine. I'm not going to slow down. Okay, so once you know that

if as long as things go the way they're going, you're going to maintain your third place. do you start thinking about PTO points with how far behind you are the winner, or is that not even a factor? No. PTO point, you're only going to, my maximum points for PTO will come from the PTO races, which are like the diamond status or whatever. I don't think in the 70.3, it's, I mean, Taylor actually did get a ton of points for this race. And I got a decent amount, but I don't think that it'll be anywhere close to my top three. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So you cross the line. So yeah, I crossed the line and third, pretty close to second, had a good buffer on fourth, and it was, it was fine. I kind of crossed the line with no emotion. It was like, this is good. This was not a disaster. Did I want to go better? Yes, but it's okay. So I got through it and, yeah, it was a super hard thing.

It came to you neck after and I was like, wow, that was really hard. Never wanted to do this race again. But I say that every year, so it's just irrelevant. irrelevant. That's just the feeling you get. I actually am looking forward to St. George in four weeks because I really like that course a lot. And I think it suits me better. I've had good memories there. I've figured out every single turn and everything on that course so meticulously.

So that's a race that's actually exciting me. When I thought about Oceanside a month out, I was not particularly excited about it. It was just a race that was easy to get to. We were down there anyway. I had no reason not to, but St. George, I'm actually, like, looking forward to. So, yeah, that was that. I also, I think, heard the most cheers I've ever had of my life on that course. So many people yelling gopola, like, it was just crazy. I think, like, every, as you're running counterflow to age groupers, like, they're all yelling at me as I'm going

this way. So it's just, like, the craziest coolest thing to have them notice that I'm coming, take the energy out of their breath to say that while they're raising. Like, that's really cool. So if you were there, thank you very much. And thank you to Eric and Nick for cheering for me. Messing for me in the minute of, you guys were doing like a freaking run workout. Messing up the gearing, not giving helpful splits. Right. I mean, that gearing was like the biggest fuck up of hopefully the year. Well, here's the thing. You asked me on Monday. Is this the same gearing that I had before? And what do I do? Say, no, it's too big. Because it's impossible for us to get a new front chain ring and get it swapped on before the race. I'm just like,

No, it's not going to be that big of a deal. And instead of having you freak out about it the whole week with something we can't fix. Anyway, it was bad. You guys would have cried. I ran. I mean, that's the gearing that I ran, but obviously that. Not at Oceanside. Yes.

There's no way you did that at Oceanside. Oh my God. Yes. No. Because I need that gear to to pedal down the hills, too. That was the other part of the thing. I thought you would spin out if you had a smaller chain. Yeah, I'm not spinning out anywhere.

That's the thing that's really That's the thing Yeah, I know in hindsight But if you have a tailwind or something Like you don't want to have to rely on the What is spinning out? Just kidding. Yeah, I know, Eric.

I know. I get it. I totally get it. But honestly, all the questions we get about 1 by versus 2 buy, I think this is a candidate for 2 by this course. Right.

Do you agree with you? Yeah, it's, it's annoying because you need the small chain ring like for a grand total, like that one hill plus one other hill. Yeah. And then you're risking dropping the chain as you do that. And you like dump into the front chain ring when you're trying to transition to this crazy steep hill. So I don't.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I agree. I think it's a good candidate for a two-by, but that was completely impossible. We did not have the front derailer amount. We didn't, you know, all other things. Yeah, this is the downside of being away from home for two months. Well, you guys never thought you would be.

No, I thought we would be home before we did Oceanside. Yeah. could make these decisions and stuff because the stuff that she needed for Miami completely different. Yeah, because super flat cores needed like three gears. Needed night vision goggles. Needed night vision goggles. We needed night vision goggles and we needed eclipse goggles for ocean side. Exactly.

Very well said Eric. Well, okay, well that's, that was Paula's 70.3 Oceanside Race Recap. I hope you enjoyed it. We loved to be there. We ran around. Eric and I ran over a half marathon. Well, Eric, should I not include you in that? Eric's foot is better. You know, half the reason Eric couldn't race is because he used half the shit from his aerobars to make my arrow bars work. And he didn't even have a fully built T-T bike. And we weren't at home for him to like get it already. So that was like actually

maybe more of the reason that you didn't race than your foot hurting. Yeah, I think I probably could have gotten through the race fine. But I spent the last couple weeks not training for 70 points. I spent the last six weeks before that training for Xtera completely different. So I just, you know, I don't feel like at this point in my career, I want to step on startlands when I don't feel 100% ready to go because racing is fast. Yeah. Especially in the men's side. Oh, man.

If I was a guy, I would definitely would not be doing triathlon right now. I mean, it's hard for anyone. For the women and for the men. It is really hard for the women too. But I just, the men is just, it's so, the depth is insane. Man, people are training hard all over the world. Anyway, let's move on to questions, and our questions are always coming from our listeners. You can submit your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast.

There you can also become a podcast supporter, and we are so, so grateful for our podcast supporters. We met so many of them this week in Oceanside. We saw a bunch of people, not a bunch, a few people wearing a shred-till bed t-shirt, and some people who said they had gotten one of the 100 posters. So that was really cool. And then last week we had kind of hinted that we were doing the meetup, not hinted. We were saying we were going right to it after we recorded the podcast. That went great.

We ran 5K with a bunch of people in TTL gear. It was super fun. So if you want to be a supporter, you can also do that at the same link. That triathlonlife.com slash podcast. We really, really, really appreciate it. And most weeks we try to give a single supporter, a random supporter, some kind of little gift. And this week it's Colin. Hamlet. Congratulations, Colin. We think that your address that we have for you may not be exactly

right. So make sure you reach out to me or through the questions portal and give us your address. And then we'll have it shipped out to you. And speaking of which, once Colin sends in his address, Paul is going to go and do the largest shipment ever out of outgoing mail from the Bend post office with all of the bottles from the past weeks that have built up. Yeah, this is going to be an expensive post-cove office trip. Nick's getting on an airplane and he's going to come up here and do it. Oh, boy. I am the podcast man here, so maybe it is my duty to do that.

I'll just need a pickup truck to get them all there. We've got a label printer and everything ready for you. Oh, nice. Okay, great. Well, first question here is from Hannah from Chattanooga. Hey, fam, keeping it short for Paula's sanity. This is not that short, by the way, Paula, so don't get too excited. Is it considered normal to always be so.

during triathlon training. I teeter at the top of my age group and put in about 15 hours a week of training for 70.3, so I assumed it was normal to always have some part of my body be sore. But I've been training with a lot of newer triathletes, and they similarly made the comment of always being sore, even though they may be doing half the training load. So I'm curious if this is just a product of being a triathlete, or if maybe most triathletes don't go the extra mile when it comes to recovery. Love you guys, and all you do for triathlon, Hannah from Chattanooga. P.S. Absolutely love my shred till bed shirt. Nice, Hannah.

So how often are you guys sore in like a regular training week? Not very often. I would say the times where I get sore or if we do like a really fast run workout and I'm like on pavement or concrete or something and running on my toes more. Or if we do a gym workout because we don't do gym that often. So that kind of is shock to the system. But otherwise on a day-to-day basis I wouldn't say I get sore. And it's not necessarily because we do like all these extravagant

recovery routines afterwards. I think we're just kind of used to the motion that we do every day. I don't know. Do you get sore, Eric? We also just don't run very fast relative to the fastest that we've run in our lives, and we try to do most of our hard workouts on soft surface. So that makes a huge difference. Yeah, I don't think soreness is a bad thing, though. I think it means that you've like tapped into muscles that aren't ready for that activity or aren't strong enough, but that's the way to make them stronger. Yeah, I actually get really excited when I am sore. Because, like, finally, I have been able to push myself hard enough to, like, create some muscular adaptation here. And I'm not just getting 0.001% more aerobically fit.

But I don't think it's necessarily pushing harder that makes you more sore all the time. Like, if I go to a yoga class for the first time in a couple months, I get extremely sore just from doing, like, the seated thing, you know? Like a sit in air for a minute. Oh, for me, like, I never get sore, but I do 10 air squats and I can't walk down the stairs. for three days. Exactly. So we just like hammer in these motions, but as soon as it's a little bit different, that's when soreness comes.

And it's not bad, but it's definitely takes doing something different. Or pushing yourself way harder than you're used to. But do you think someone that's top of their age group training 15 hours a week that is consistently sore? Do you think that's a cause for concern at all? Consistently sore is a little interesting. Yeah. Maybe if you've got like, it kind of depends.

what you're doing in the day too. Like if your back is sore and your glutes are sore and everything, are you sitting all day? Are you, like, Eric and I do get regular massage and we do foam roll a lot. Like, we do look after ourselves, so maybe that. But another thing I'd say is drinking a lot. I think that kind of gets missed sometimes, just the hydration element of like replenishing your muscles that are dehydrated and using that to recover and to feel better. I don't know. That could be a thing. I would agree. Yeah, the most sore I've been in a while is when you and I scouted the route for the running film that we shot in Ventura in the morning. And then the evening went back and ran it.

I ran most of it like twice because I was running back and forth to get the shot and carry the gimbal and all the things. I was sore from that for like four days. And I think I ended up doing like 900 meters of elevation on trail that day. Yeah, that was a lot. That was a lot. That's definitely in the new and beyond stimulus category for soreness. Totally. Cool.

Okay. Next question here is from Ben. Hi, Eric, Paula, Nick. Supporter and mega fan here. Thank you, Ben, for being a supporter. Question for Eric. Does gravel racing spark your interest at all? With your road and mountain bike experience, it seems like your bike skills would be well

suited for that type of racing. Also, congratulations to Paula on the Oceanside podium. Thanks, Ben. Yeah. This is an interesting one. Um, five, six, seven years ago, gravel racing really caught my interest and I, I did a couple. Um, but the more that I watch, uh, race recaps and hear people talk about current gravel racing, at least, you know, kind of in the area where I would be trying to be closer to the front end of the race.

It just sounds so much like road racing, but on dirt, I don't know. It, uh, what, what I liked about the gravel racing, races that I did is just a little more spread out. Yes, your technical abilities definitely come into it. It's not so much like this tactical crazy high speed on a gravel road where if somebody goes down 10 bikes in front of you, everyone's breaking their collarbones. Or you're like all just crushing yourself to get to this tiny little trail pinch point. I don't know. You know, it's like I definitely get enough excitement from racing trathon and racing Xtera to like feel that race bug and when I think of gravel it's much more of like a be out in nature and have fun and

be spirit like just like feel the spirit of the outdoors and stuff and I 99% of the time don't have a power meter like operating and everything and so it's I don't know I kind of is like if I did gravel racing I'm not sure it would like be positive for my overall feeling of what gravel means to me right maybe even something where it's like a point to point find your way there is is more interesting where it's not about that super top end racy thing. Yeah. Yeah. Or just like a smaller local one where, you know, I'm not like bleeding out of my eyeballs

and getting dropped by Keegan Swenson and whatever and have a little bit more time to like maybe chat with somebody in the middle of the thing. Yeah. I don't know. Cool. Cool. Okay. Next question here.

Hi, Paul, Eric, Nick and Flynn. I've wanted to race triathlon for a long time and had years of injuries and and I'm finally doing my first 70.3 at Morrow Bay in a few weeks. I have a billion questions I could ask, but after washing Oceanside, I'm thinking a lot about the temperature. That's a lot. As I think it could be decently cold for the swim and bike in Morrow Bay as well. Based on how Paula looked before the race, I think I probably dislike being cold as much as she does. I definitely think I'm going to put on gloves in T1.

The announcers even talked about some people, maybe especially age-roopers, wearing a base layer or vest on the bike, which Paula, you did wear a base layer, right? Yeah. Yeah. My basic question is, Paula, what advice do you have based on this very recent experience and would you do anything differently

in regards to the temperature? Do you think the gloves were worth it? Nick, based on your job, it sounds like you will be there at Morrow Bay, and I assume that might mean you're racing. If so, have you thought about what you're going to wear? Nick, is it in a few weeks? It's in more than a few weeks.

It's in the middle of May. Oh, okay. I was going to say, you better get on your bike. Yeah, for real. Nick, are you training? Yeah, it was just that it's cold and I hate being cold, obviously. Who likes being cold, honestly? But the gloves, I think, were the most critical part.

I put a specialized, like, base layer underneath my kit, which I think was beneficial for the bike ride. But by the time the run came, I was actually too warm and wish I didn't have it on. So I think in Morrow Bay you just have to look at the forecast of how quick it looks like it's going to warm up. And generally I think your legs are fine. The things that get coldest for me are my feet and my hands. So I put like toe covers on my shoes and I had gloves on and I was fine on the bike. Yeah, I was a little chilly at first, but once you get moving, it's okay. But the hands are just so critical for things like shifting and getting out of the saddle and getting your gels and getting nutrition in, getting your bottles.

So you really don't want numb hands, and it's definitely worth the 20 seconds it takes to get them on. That's kind of my advice. There's nothing really you can do in the swim. I did double cap it, but that's kind of all you can do. Yeah. Last year from Morrow Bay, I also double capped it and immediately got that ice cream headache. And that was the only time I really hated the cold. I was really cold in the swim, but on the bike I just wore nothing.

I didn't wear a base layer or gloves or anything. I had a feeling it was not as cold as it was in Oceanside this year, though. Yeah, I don't know about the water temperature difference, but I didn't get like the headache cold, but once we got in, we weren't allowed to get back out. So I got in the water exactly four minutes before the start, swam around for a couple minutes and then got in line. So I didn't really do any kind of swim warm up in order to stay as warm as possible up to the last second. And then I got in the water. So if that's an option, just so you're not standing there cold before the start, that's probably my advice is bringing a sweater you don't care about that you can kind of ditch

at the start or something like that so that your body temperature is at least a little warm before you go. Eric, what would you have done if you were racing Oceanside in terms of clothing? Probably nothing. Just braved it. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it was necessarily significantly colder than Oceanside has been in the past and it's never been a problem for me. I would have been fine without gloves, I think. It wasn't like St. George. in 2022 where people were making stupid decisions to not put anything on and then they actually froze. This was really not as bad as that. And I actually, Zoot gave me a pair of gloves to wear because I didn't bring gloves with me, which was super nice of them. But the gloves that I

have from Castelli that have the zipper are actually so good for this purpose because you can open up the back of them completely. So you're just sticking your fingers in and then you zip it up. And when you have wet hands, those are by far the easiest to get into. They're kind of like winter heavy gloves, but they're what I used in St. George a few years ago, and I would say those are the best for this. Yeah, yeah. The other thing that Paula and I talked about, which I would recommend, is just putting on your wetsuit pretty early and maybe like jogging around in it a bit,

doing some jumping jacks, like really using the wetsuit to get your body temperature up. Heeing in it. Yeah, like prior to getting in the water. The worst thing is that you are cold before you walk into the water, and then you're cold in the water, and it's just, there's no coming back from that. Okay, next question here is from Laramie. Shammie Tech with Eric, I love it. Or really anyone who wants to answer, I'm doing my first triathlon this year, a sprint, on my gravel bike.

I told myself I would do one sprint before diving into my first tri-bike. I did, however, get a tri-suit, and let me tell you, the shami is a bit underwhelming compared to the cycling bibs I normally wear. Is there a better option if I'm not riding in the arrow position? Do y'all wear the smaller try shammies on normal training days or road bike days? Do you guys ever wear the shammies outside of racing? Absolutely not. We want to be as comfortable as possible all of the time.

So the nicest bibs that we have when we do bike workouts. And then the reason that that shammie is so small for triathlon is just go sometime, like dunk your high-quality, nice cycling bibs in water, and then put them on and go for bike ride and see how that like soggy wet. diaper feels. Well, also just running off the bike is much better with a thin shaming. Yeah, running off the bike in a sweaty, big shammie, not the move. So you have to make a little bit of a compromise on the bike, but if your saddle is good,

I think it'll be okay. I've never thought twice about like, oh, this shammie is so small. I'm very uncomfortable. I was just about to ask that. But you would, I think you would in training, because you're thinking about this stuff, but in the race, your mind is in so many other places, you just never really think of it. Yeah. Maybe for a super long ride, but I don't know.

we talked about last podcast, my saddle's pretty comfy. You're always comfy. I don't think I need a super giant pad under there. Right. But yeah, I don't think about it in races. And I used to race ITU and like a bathing suit with no shammie. So this is a little step up from that. Yeah, it's a big improvement.

I'd also, the difference I was wonder though is like it ultimately sort of affects your saddle height a little bit. If you've got a huge pad versus no pad, you're half a centimeter, maybe higher or lower. and neither of I. I didn't think about it until one time Holly Lawrence was staying in our place in Eminton before a race and she was like

adjusting her saddle height before the race because the shamies less. I was like oh my God I never considered that but I don't think you guys should necessarily do that

I just like I've considered it I just didn't I've never wanted to test it yeah that might be a good thing to like test your trisuit in training

with yeah and see moving the saddle up a tiny bit yeah Well, let me just say for amateurs, you should test your trisuit before race day to make sure everything fits and you don't have any weird chafing stuff. Yeah, but only one time, not like every day. Not the day before. Nick, we saw so many people in Oceanside running up and down the course the day before in their freaking race kids.

We did, yeah. We're like, save that shit for the race day. I think we have the Norwegians to think for that, honestly. Yeah, they train in their race kids. But there's something, I feel like they're doing it for, I don't know. I think Gustav talked about this one time. It's like when he's in his race kit and his TT bike, if he sits up, it's uncomfortable,

so it kind of forces him to stay arrow. I think I remember him saying that. Wow. But I don't know. That's like some weird, I don't know what to call that. We're not telling the TTL listeners to do what the Norwegians do. It's a completely different audience. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Okay. Next question here is from Jordan. Hi, TTL gang. I'm obsessed with Nick's Grammy-winning song, Rock and Roll. by Kingfish. Thank you, Jordan. The lyrics are very moving and got me thinking who in your life has been the biggest influence on your athletic and professional success

or who has been instrumental in your growth personally and professionally. Love what you guys are doing for the community to keep up the great work and good luck the rest of 2024. Hashtag TTL Nash. That's from Jordan. So to give a little context, the song is written, dedicated to his mom who had passed away. Kingfish's mom who had passed away.

and she was a big inspiration for him. It's a really good song. You guys should go listen to it. Thank you. For you guys, who comes to mind? This is someone who's inspired us at some point or currently? Up to you. Yeah, I guess up to you. What comes to your mind when we say that? Is there a face that kind of is put in front of you? The only person that comes to mind for me, and this is like, I kind of see my triathlon career in two phases.

There was like the initial IT career where I had a lot of success there. And then there was a lot of really down bad times. And then the second phase, which I 100% attribute to Eric and my coach, Paulo, who's been my coach now for five years or so. But I don't think that I'd be doing the sport still if I didn't have these two to keep me healthy, you know, make me treat it more like a job than I ever have. like think a little bit more outside the box, not just like being a racing robot, but we have a TTR and all this fun stuff that Eric's kind of built.

And definitely the training day to day, I wouldn't be doing this solo. So having Eric makes all the difference. I 100% would not be racing still if it weren't for follow in Eric. And you've said that to me many times. I've heard you say that several times that specifically about Eric

that he's like so instrumental and you're racing well. For sure, yeah, especially in this phase. I think also with Eric, I over the years, like, started eating better and started eating more, starting eating enough. And then the other thing, like, I've had really good coaches through my career, but they've all kind of ended in bad ways because I was so injured and they didn't know how to manage the success of like a young athlete who just, I just wanted to do more and more and more,

and they weren't pulling me back. And they weren't, you know, it was like all in when I'm healthy and winning races and then just like felt disconnected when I needed help the most. But Paulo is not at all like that. And I think because of him, I've been able to have really a very consistent five years of racing. And the times that I am injured managed appropriately so that I can get healthy again. So I think that we've really figured out a good working relationship and wouldn't be having the success I'm having without him. And it's kind of funny after the race. He's like, how did it go?

I was like fairly negative at first, but he flipped it instantly and he's like, you've been top five at your last 12 races, which I had not even thought about. That's good. That is consistent and that is all I can ask for after a lot of non-consistent years before that. Yeah. Anyway, I'm making this all about me. Eric, what's your answer? No, that's fine.

I've been enjoying listening to it. Yeah, I would have to give a lot of credit to Paulo as well. early on when I moved down to San Diego he set an incredible culture in the triathlon squad in the daily training environment that I was in and really helped me fully understand what it meant to

be a professional and be all in I think a lot of people that don't experience that can think they're all in until you are training with four other guys that have given up have actually given up everything in their lives to chase after the Olympics and I made huge gains in that situation,

and I treated every day like it was completely important, and Paula and I have stayed together even since that sort of Olympic phase. Paulo. Paulo. Yeah, sorry. I got Paul O and Paula and the whole thing. And still, even to this day, I make certain decisions in life when I think about, you know, what he would say if I was having a conversation with him about, oh, should I do this workout or not or should I go to this race or not or whatever.

And I have a pretty good idea of what he would say now. And it's become a part of, you know, my decision making. Same. For the better. You know, for the better. The first day we were in Ventura, we did like a, we did a tempo run, but we warmed up uphill and then we did the tempo run downhill. And I was like, oh man, Paulo is going to lose his shit at us. It felt so good, though.

I guess we were like rolling downhill. And then three days later at our next tempo run, he just texts Eric Knais and says, no downhill on the tempo. Yeah. I was like, I've been waiting for this text for three days. He's a man, a few words. I thought that would happen immediately. But he's not disciplining us.

He's just like the fact that we know that he knows, we know exactly what he's going to say. about things. It's like, I think that... And he knows, we know he knows. Yeah. I was like, just a potential reminder. I am watching. Yeah.

I know everything. You know you shouldn't have done that. Yeah. And then like on the creative and the brand side, I would have to give a lot of credit to Ralph Dunning at Foreign Writer. Every time I talk to him, he inspires me to do, to be better in that area and take that more seriously and build that to be the best that it can be. So on the creative side, it's Ralph and then I will also say Paula.

If I didn't have Paula and the desire to build a better life together and build something that it gives us runway when our bodies give up on us and we can't be professional athletes anymore, yeah, I'd probably just be living in a van down by the river. Yeah, because I have like very expensive taste when it comes to interior design, houses, hotels. I am premium. Yeah. And you know, if you've been following my journey for a long time, like I've been making videos for quite a while since before Paula came into the picture.

And it was really when Paula came into my life that videos really started getting more attention. She brought this extra element of fun to it. And I was inspired to, you just, you inspire me to make things and to show off, you know, how good you are at sport and our life together. You know me. Just bring in the fun all the time. You bring the, there's never a dull moment. And I think that's important.

It doesn't always have to be fun. That's true. It's, uh, it's always, it's always a ride. But Paula, I feel like you have been bringing the fun more so lately. I don't know if it's intentional or not. I was having good. You guys, I got to go to the airport. I'm late.

But Eric, I think that what I'm going to leave, but you should do a quick mention of what you're doing this weekend in Denver in case people want to go. Okay. Paula's going to the airport to pick up Kate, who, will be the next part of this podcast. Yeah, we're going to record her tomorrow. Okay, and now through the magic of podcast editing, which only I am capable of, I have all the secret tricks.

Kate is here, and it sounds like we were never gone. Kate, welcome to That Traatham Live podcast. Thank you. Great to be here. I think you needed to put in some, like, magic wind chimes. Oh, that's a great idea. Something like that. Some voodoo magic. I just want to intro Kate really quick.

Kate is on our development team, but she's a super, super great athlete and came seventh in Oceanside last weekend. So had a really good result. And I think she has big things of head of her. So we're excited to have her here and have her training in Ben for two weeks before we all head to St. George for our next race. Is St. George part of the Iron Man Pro Series as well? It is, yes. Wow, you guys are stacking up points so far.

We're just stacking them off. But Nick, start asking quite questions. I'm sure they want to hear. Okay, I'm sorry, sorry, Kate, I'm very interested. First of all, just to give a little more context, how long have you been doing triathlon and how long have you been a pro? Oh, where to start.

So, yeah, I did my first triathlon when I was seven years old and had a bit of a, yeah, maybe an unconventional pathway in triathlon. I did it to a high level as a junior. I was sort of racing on the ETA circuit, went to European champs, went to world champs, and then took a break from triathlon

in my late teens and early 20s and came back to it sort of around COVID time. I've been a pro for two years, so this is my second season. Last year I was kind of finding my feet at just trying different races, learning how to race as a pro, because prior to that, even, I'd only done one year as an age grouper. I did two races and in that second race got my pro license. So last year was about finding my feet, getting some experience.

And the TTR Devo team came along, which was a great opportunity for me. So I'm really delighted to be part of the team of some really phenomenal athletes who are all in similar situations to me, just trying to develop their career, grow my profile, and, yeah, be competing alongside Eric and Paula. So it's a great opportunity. And yeah, here I am in my second year racing as a pro. So I'm curious, since it's super fresh in your brain, what is the biggest field difference or thing that is different between age group racing and you are at a high level of age. age group racing and doing pro races now. Yeah, it's a great question. I think with pro racing, it's just very dynamic. You have to be aware of what other people are doing.

I found with age group racing, I could kind of lock into my own paces a bit more. If something went wrong in age group racing, maybe there's a bit more leeway for error because you can just make things up in your own time. Whereas I think with pro racing, you really have to be on the ball focused on yourself and your own racing, but at the same time have an eye on what other people are doing. You know, if there's a split in the swim, then you need to be aware of what's happening. If there's, you know, a section of the bike coming up where you don't want to be on the back of the group because you might get lost off the group. Things like that. There's just an extra

dynamic to pro racing. And I can't say I know it all yet because, yeah, this is only my second season. So just learning, quite often learning on the job, as they say. So, say with Oceanside I learned a lot in that race that I haven't come across before. So every race just learning about pro racing and taking it to the next race. Kate is also a lawyer actually. Is that correct? It is. Yeah. So she's super smart and I think that will only help her in figuring this pro thing out quicker than most people. But are you taking a little break right now from work?

Yeah, so while I'm in the States, yeah, I'm focusing on my racing and my training. I want to be able to be over here and really sort of immerse myself in the experience, turn up to races, not worrying about certain, you know, deals or sort of workloads that I maybe haven't finished before a race. It's nice to turn up to a race and just be, you know, focused on what's coming up. Yeah, totally different. Yeah, we've talked about this, but why did you decide to come over to the U.S. to do these couple of races instead of just staying around home, travels easier, shorter, no time difference? Like, what was the reason to come over and do Oceanside in St. George? Sure. Well, last year I watched the Oceanside stream and just thought it looked like a really great race.

Some Brits did it last year too, and I just wanted to get involved this year. And then more broadly, just to, as I said, I'm sort of trying to learn different styles of racing, race different people, race different fields. So I thought coming across to America would bring opportunities in sort of that direction. And also being on the TTR team. So obviously there's a huge support for the TTL team over here in the US. So that also was another draw for me to come over here. And yeah, in the Oceanside race I had lots of go-TTL. Nice.

So, yeah, a few things that brought me over here. And yeah, I'm so glad I did in the end. You know, as you say, it's a lot more travel. There's more expenses. There's more organizing involved. But for me, yeah, I think Traathlon, you've just got to, go for things, try different things, learn from them. I think even if I'd had a bad race in Oceanside,

I still would have, you know, the experience is more than just the race itself. But luckily, I did have a good race. Yeah, I think a big part of triathlon racing as a pro is like tapping out of your comfort zone a lot. And that comes with the territory and you travel overseas and it's not familiar and there's a lot of logistics. But I think in the end it just teaches you a lot. and you'll be better for it.

So we're excited that you're here. Definitely. Even, you know, this is my first big travel for a race. So learning how to coat with jet lag, that was a bit of a shock to the system. The first few days I felt like my brain was just somewhere else. Oh, and Nick, you won't believe this. We just did a swim.

And Kate had her first burrito ever after the swim. No. Yeah. Not the first burrito she's ever had after a swim. The first burrito ever. No, I realize. Yeah. Even that would be amazing, though.

I was like, this is my first burrito. burrito today. Yeah. You know what's funny? I had a burrito and I'm having burritos with my friends for dinner. So there you go. Yeah. Two in one day. It can happen twice in a day. That's a complete food. But it's an example of something that's challenging sometimes traveling overseas, completely different food options and adjusting to that. Are they not burritos in the UK? Are I losing my mind? There are, I think it's more just me being a creature of habit and sticking to, you know, classic fish and chips. Boiled potatoes. This is the. This is the Brito epicenter.

From here, South, California, that is where the burritos are good and worth having them. In the whole world. Okay, so let's talk about your race, though, because you had a phenomenal swim. And let me ask you, to give context, is this your best ever performance

as a triathlete? I think so, overall. And especially if you sort of look at the points that I got from that race, that would say it's my best race. There are a few things in the race that I was disappointed with, but as an overall performance, yeah, I was really happy with it. Okay, great. So swim, were you expecting to swim as well as you did? How did that whole thing go?

Yeah, the swim was an experience. The hooter went off and I thought, you know... The what? The hooter, the start gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the hooter, of course. That's what I call it, too. We have a restaurant here in the United States. It's called Hooters. And you can just Google it. That's not the same hooter. It's not the same hooter.

I think I'm going to call it a hooter from now on though. I like that. Definitely. Okay, TTR people, anyone listening? It is now your duty to call it a hooter from now on. Make it happen. And you have to accept any strange looks you get from people around you when you call up that. Just got to own it.

Just roll with it. Okay, let her keep talking. Let her keep going. Yeah, so that hooter went off and off I went. Actually, Paula and I, we started next to each other. I think we were, you know, going at a decent speed. But I saw some fast feet coming down my inside, and I like the look of those fast feet. So I did a few strokes going a bit more sideways, jumped on those feet and just, yeah, hung on.

I didn't, I wasn't sure if I was with the leaders. And then suddenly I brewed to the right and I saw this big media boat with cameras. And I thought, oh, right, okay, if the media boat's here, then there must be something interesting here to film. So hopefully these are the leaders, yeah. So that was really cool. Once I realized I was with the leaders, my brain got very excited, but I thought, come on, okay,

you need to focus here, don't get carried away, follow those feet, follow the bubbles. And that was just my mantra for the whole swim, really. Yeah, it was a very good swim for me. I think the conditions

just seemed to suit my stroke. I love wet suit swims in particular. And yeah, I just seemed to be firing on all cylinders in that swim. Wonderful. Okay, so then you came out of a transition and it was confirmed to you like, oh my gosh, I am with the leaders here.

And did anything change at that point? Did you think, okay, this isn't just me trying to do well at this race? This is important and I'm going to pay extra close attention. Like, was there any of that that happened? Not so much. It was more just keeping calm. You know, I've done races as a junior in my short course career. And I've done a really good swim and then got really excited and made mistakes and fumbled

around in transition, messed up my mount onto the bike. So I think, yeah, experiences like that from previous racing, I then was trying to implement into this race. So I thought just get through transition, nice and clean, get to that mount line, get on your bike and then sort of get into gear and get going. I think it's really easy when you're in a situation that's, you know, even better than I could have imagined to get carried away and think, oh, I need to go, go, go, and just sort of brain gets carried. away. So I just almost slowed myself down in some ways. Just execute, get on that bike nice and clean, no spills, no dropping of things. In transition, I put on an extra layer. I spent that

extra five, 10 seconds because the air temperature was quite cold. But yeah, it was awesome to be with the leaders in transition, but I think, you know, I'm realistic when my biking performances at the moment. And I, you know, I wanted to stay with the leaders for as long as possible, but equally, I knew it's, you know, 90K ahead. And not many people can stay with the likes of Taylor Nib on that bike. Fonella was also out the road. She had a great transition, a great swim. So, yeah, it was great to be in the thicker things. But, you know, it was a long day ahead from that point. So when you got on the bike, you were alone? I was pretty alone. Yeah, there was some pro men around, which was quite nice going past some of them.

Right, right. But, yeah, you weren't out. with Taylor and Finela. Taylor was slightly behind me coming out transition. She pulled on

some gloves and maybe some more layers. Fanella had a very quick smooth transition. Very impressive and she was

just off and up the road. Cool. Okay, so you thought trust the process, trust the training you've put in,

trust your experience, do not get carried away, and then you start the bike. At some point Taylor comes by you and then you're alone for how long?

How did the rest of the bike go? Yeah, the first the bike was a bit twisty, sort of where you're getting onto the bike path, entering into Camp Pendleton. So I was on my own, but I think Paula was the next person to come past me, actually. She very kindly gave me some good words of encouragement, said, stay with me if you can. And I thought to myself, I don't think that's happening. She said, don't you dare beat me today is what she said.

Yeah, if you beat me, I'm quitting. No, I'm just kidding. I wanted you to stay with me. I wanted you to stay with me. Yeah, I did my best, but no, I can't match Paula. So I saw her disappear into the distance. And a couple of other girls then started to come past during the bike. And I thought, just stay near as long as you stay in the race. I was confident in my run performance coming into this. So I thought as long as I'm close enough and keep on top of my nutrition, that was something my coach really sort of impressed onto me because you almost have to invest in the future if you're in nutrition. I wasn't feeling that great on the bus. I wasn't feeling that great on the bike, but I thought, you know, don't let a bad, well, a bad kind of bike lead to a bad run.

So, yeah, the bike course was savage. I found it really tough, but just kept plugging away and just tried to stay as close to the front as I could. But I think there's more to come with my biking. I think that's smart. A lot of the time when you do have a little bit of a weaker bike, the run ends up being even better because you're conserving a better energy, put extra effort into the nutrition. That's happened to me several times too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm thinking back to one of my first, my first pro race was actually in Portugal, and I got a puncture on the bike. And I then actually had a really good run because I was nearly last coming off the bike in that race. And I just used that experience again for Oceanside thinking, you know, even if you're losing more time on the bike than you hoped, the race is by no means over. There's people up the road that you just need to stay close to, run through them when you get off off of the bike. So yeah, just taking experiences. from the past and using them for the present. Did you end up running through people on the run?

In Portugal, yes. I caught some people. But in this race? Oh, in this race, sorry. Yes, so I caught, there was one girl who was three minutes ahead of me coming off the bike. I caught her. Wow. But I was just, I needed an extra couple of minutes to be up the road.

And then I think I would have been more in the fight for the sort of top five, top six. So yeah, I need a couple more minutes off of my bike. and then I'll be, you know, really close to fighting for those, you know, top five positions. You would have been off with Danielle and Grace and, yeah, yeah, that was, and they were running well like you were. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, my runtime was good. I still think, you know, if I'd been in a bit of a battle, then maybe some more time there. But I paced it well. I felt stronger at the end than I did at the beginning, which I think is a good sign that my,

a lot of my training lately has been focused on just being fast, but also being strong. So not wilting in that second half. And I think part of that is nutrition. Part of it is pacing. And part of it is just, you know, pushing the limits a bit more. I'm still learning this distance. So I think, yeah, I think there's still more to come in my run. Sweet.

So if there was like a number one thing that you're thinking about in training or whatever between now and St. George, what is it? Good question. I think initially focusing on recovering and feeling better. but I think St. George, I want to put together a more complete performance. In Oceanside, I had a very good swim, a good run, but the bike was just too weak to be really competitive. So I think, yeah, in this gap between the races, I'll really be focusing on just nailing what I can improve in that relatively short time to lead to a better bike performance. Cool. That was a great recap.

That was great, Kate. You know, it's funny, the thing that I am taking away from this more than anything is that you kind of, a few times during your explanation of what happened on the day, what I'm getting from this is forget what has already happened today. Just focus on what is in front of you today. Right? Like when you came out of the swim, yes, it was a really good swim, but forget about that. Just do the bike however you can do the bike. And then when the bike didn't go as well as you were hoping, you said, okay, forget about that and try to do as well as like, can on the run. And in both situations, even though it went in opposite directions, it seemed to

suit you well. Just think forward, act as if things are going to get better, take your nutrition, get yourself ready for a good run, and then you really did have a good run. And I think it's good for all of us to remember this when we're on the bike sometimes and we're not feeling good. It doesn't mean you're not going to have a good run. You may not have a good run, but you may have a great run. I agree. Yeah. I agree too. It's something everyone can take away. Yeah. Well, Kate, congratulations. You're currently ranked top 10 in the Iron Man Pro Series, so that's awesome. Hell yeah. Race one of one. Yeah, just keep that going the whole year.

Yep, and you're going to be even higher ranked after St. George. Yeah. It's after Texas, too, though. Yeah, don't jinx me next. Nick. I'm not jinxing. I'm a soothsayer. I can tell the future. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, cool. We're really excited to have Kate here for the next couple weeks, and maybe we could have around the pot another time. She's here for a while. That's great. We'd love to have her.

Okay, cool. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. And that was a long one, but I think it was a good one. Got a little bit of everything. A couple of race recaps, a couple of questions. And we'll see you again next week. Yeah, we'll see you next week. Bye, everybody.

Thanks, Kate. Yeah.